Office of the Chief Information Officer &
High Performance Computing and Communications

Peer Review Plans

Title and Description:

Benchmark Review of Stock Assessment of the Coral Reef Fishes of Hawaii, 2016

PIFSC scientists are conducting stock assessments on exploited coral reef fish species in the Pacific Islands Region which are listed in the Council's Fishery Ecosystem Plans. These stocks are generally classified as data-poor due to a lack of reliable, long-term, catch and fishing effort data. Historically, the Council has set and NMFS has approved setting of annual catch limits (ACLs) using a percentile of median historical catch levels and more recently, a biomass-augmented catch-MSY method has been applied (Sabater and Kleiber 2014, NOAA 2015).
In an effort to use additional available data sources for these stocks, scientists at PIFSC have conducted new coral reef fish assessments using length composition data, abundance data from diver surveys, and certain key population demographic parameters related to growth, maturity, and longevity. PIFSC scientists have been implementing an approach that uses the average length in the exploited phase of the population (Lbar) to obtain an estimate of total and fishing mortality rates for coral reef fish stocks (Beverton & Holt 1956; Ehrhardt & Ault 1992). These rates, combined with population demographic parameters, are used in a numerical population model to obtain stock sustainability metrics (e.g., spawning potential ratio, F/FMSY; see Ault et al. 1998, 2008). Overfishing limits can be generated by using recent total catch estimates and/or population size estimates from diver surveys. Furthermore, a novel meta-analytical approach using stochastic simulations was developed at PIFSC to obtain demographic parameter estimates for species with even less data than data-poor species (“data-less” species). These scientific methods recently underwent a rigorous independent review by a panel organized by the Center for Independent Experts, and have now been applied to individual species in the main Hawaiian Islands. There is a need to independently review these species-specific stock assessments prior to submission to a fishery management organization for consideration.